Okay, so that final visit to Nippert didn’t go so well. Next up on the farewell to Big East venues tour: the Rent.

Rentschler Field does not hold happy memories for Pitt and Pitt fans. It has been the scene of — and I say this with a lot less hyperbole than you may think — career defining losses for two Pitt coaches. Paul Chryst has already had his share this season, so it would be nice to avoid adding to the collection.

Before he accompanied his team to Connecticut for Friday’s game at Rentschler Field, Chryst was asked if the 29-26 loss in South Bend will make Pitt stronger. After all, the Panthers came within a missed field goal of upsetting an unbeaten Irish team in noisy Notre Dame Stadium.

“I am anxious to see if that cliche holds true,” Chryst said. “That, to me, is one of the storylines. Are we going to learn from that? Is that a one-time deal? Or, is that we are growing as a team?”

Will they take it one play at a time? Play down to their opponent? Take their frustrations out on UConn? Are they still hung-up on blowing the chance to beat Notre Dame? Not even their hairdresser coach knows for sure.

“Yeah, but we’ve got to get this one [at UConn] to get six. This is big,” left guard Chris Jacobson said. “These seniors want to have an extra game with a bowl game, but we’ve got to get this one to get to six. Our whole focus this week is turning the page and playing UConn.”

Especially for the seniors, who have gone through three coaching changes in their time at Pitt, the opportunity to play one more game is more than enough motivation the rest of the way.

“I think that guys want to play one more game together,” center Ryan Turnley said. “We’ve been here for a while, we’ve been through a lot together. As long as it can last, we want to keep it going.”

Pitt coach Paul Chryst said that he doesn’t mention it often, but will occasionally remind players of the big-picture goals in what he called “State of the State” meetings, though he noted, “believe it or not, they’re not long meetings.”

Beating UConn would also be the official elimination of all hopes of a bowl game for UConn. Not that they had much hope at 3-6 with Louisville and Cinci to follow, but it’s always nice to be the official final nail in the coffin.

In bits and pieces, Pasqualoni, in his second season, has mentioned issues that have a dogged a once-proud running game that is now wallowing at 116th in the nation among FBS teams, with an 82-yards-a-game average.

The passing game, 58th in the nation at 235.8 yards a game, is better than in past years. Still, the Huskies aren’t scoring enough to win games. They are 117th out of 120 schools in scoring, at 16.6 points a game. The latter is an embarrassing statistic at any level, and the persistent offensive struggles tell another story: they are a primary reason why UConn is just 8-13 in the Pasqualoni era.

“It’s been an accumulation of a bunch of little things,” Pasqualoni said of the running game. “The details … sometimes [we’re] just not getting the execution that’s required. You can’t say it’s any one particular guy or any one particular position. I think we’ve all contributed to it in the run game.”

Paul Pasqualoni has forgotten more about football cliches and excuses than most of us will ever learn.

The numbers are staggering, not a secret, but worth pointing out. The 16.6 points the Huskies are averaging per game is the lowest in the Big East. Nationally, the number is 117th out of 120 FBS schools. The Huskies have only three touchdowns in the [four game] losing streak, the most recent in the second quarter of a 40-10 loss at Syracuse Oct. 19. The streak of consecutive quarters without a touchdown in the second half dates to the fourth quarter of the Sept. 29 game against Buffalo, so that’s nine quarters, not counting the overtime period against Temple on Oct. 13.

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Thus that D will be a challenge for a Huskies offensive line that has had trouble protecting the quarterback (26 sacks this season) and has especially had trouble recognizing and picking up blitzes. The Huskies have struggled to move the ball on first and second down, so defenses have simply pinned their ears back and sent the house at quarterback Chandler Whitmer. When the running game can’t produce, the defense knows UConn has to throw, a position it has found itself in far too many times.

Defensively — other than being destroyed by Syracuse — they have been pretty good. They just don’t have any offense.

Pitt has no excuse not to take out UConn. Player disappointment over the ND loss or not. They simply cannot lose this game.

Who cares what the point spread is? That is determined by factors out of the control of this football team. As Coach Chryst states, “control the controlables”. If Pitt ONLY has to overcome their opponent then they win this game going away. They should be hungry for a win after letting ND get away with a win last week. This team has something to prove tonight, it is not the time to be hanging our collective heads or second guessing ourselves. Or worrying over who on the team uttered the most recent stupid sound bite.

Mason up and demonstrate to the rest of the world that the ND effort put forth was not a fluke!

On the other hand, the BigLeast won’t come close to filling all their esteemed Bowl Slots if Pitt loses, as we would then most certainly lose to Rutgers as well. With conference revenue sharing of Bowl money, it behooves the conf. to have as many bowl eligible teams as possible. So…..

we shall see !

VeV

P.S. Tino had a big game against this pathetic team last year I believe. It it’s not too windy for his candy arm, he should have a big game.

You know it’s interesting. As heartbreaking as the ND loss was, I think we took a step towards legitimacy. All of the sudden Dorian Johnson and Robert Foster as scheduled for official visits. All of the sudden there are recruiting updates about lineman. We all know that goes up in smoke if we lay an egg tonight. You said it best Chaz, we simply can not lose this game. I see us wounded but hungry. In the words of the Immortal Dr. Tom. Mason up fellas and win this one. Not just for yourselves, but for the future of Pitt Football.

We’ve lost 5 of our last 8 conference games and have a been a fustercluck of inconsistency this year. Who in their right mind would put us up as big favorites?

I’m worried because we are not that great of a football team, but getting better. We can lose ANY of the games left on our schedule just as easily as we can win any of them. It’s not like we’re going in with a 15 game winning streak.

When I get frustrated, I find myself in a bad mood. When I’m in a bad mood I get angry, when I get angry I like to hit something hard. When I hit something hard enough times for a long enough period, I don’t feel frustrated anymore.

@ AJ, for the above reasoning this is why the Pitt Panthers are going to be all over the UCONN Huskies tonight. This team is learning how to win, it wants to win and it is definitely pissed off that they didn’t bring home a win last Saturday. Tonight they should still be angry about that and in a very bad mood. I suggest the cure for what ails them is to hit things hard, many times, for a full sixty minutes. Then they should feel much better and no longer frustrated because they will have put a win in their back pocket. The Huskies however no so much. I’m already kind of feeling sorry for those poor dogs.

And I’m kind of disappointed in your prediction PittofDreams, we are usually of like minds, but this time you see a tough game for Pitt, I feel a blowout by Pitt over UCONN. I hope that my optimism isn’t just due to the fact that I ate two bowls of Wheaties this morning. And you know what they say about Wheaties.

Dr. Tom – I was literally getting ready to write you and ask if you had your Wheaties, changed your meds, brand of whisky etc. Your comments over the last 3 weeks seem full of a noticeable increase in testosterone and emotion.

Several of my Frat Brothers are making the trip by Amtrak (if they don’t get waylaid at Penn Station NY)as they do every other year. Much like playing WVU, I hope this is the last time we ever see UConn on the football field!

Would also love to see Anderson start. If Chryst actually does it, there is no use tipping his hand.

Maybe Tino could play the first three quarters and then Trey for the 4th. Or maybe a wildcat for the 4th. It couldn’t be any worse. Just don’t tell Tino ahead of time, cause then the 3rd quarter might be like the 4th usually is for him.

I agree AJ, I still feel the sting of last Saturday, so how could the kids not??

Agreed, but, the coach and staff had to be working on this all week. Get the motivating tools out. Many other teams come out and win after a tough loss (I know, I use to use that theory when betting chocolate chip cookies), it worked about 50% of the time. Just like the actual betting!! LOL

@Steve1, you know what would make me proud, ending this NHL crap and get to playing.

That’s a nice thing in the winter, Pitt hoops one night, Pens the next!!!!!!